1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a hand-held depilating device for plucking hairs from the skin of a user, and more particularly to such device having a stimulator providing stimuli to the skin for masking the pain of plucking the hairs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,753 discloses a depilating device which comprises a plucking head for plucking the hairs from the skin of a user and a passive roller which is mounted separately from the plucking head to be made in rolling contact with the skin as the plucking head is moved across the skin. The roller acts to smooth or stretch a portion of the skin from which the hairs are plucked by the plucking head to thereby alleviate a pain by an effect of reducing resistance to a force of pulling the hairs. However, even with the stretching by the rolling contact of the roller, there remains a problem that the pain itself may be perceived still significantly by the user. Further, European Patent EP-A-0 493 849 A1 discloses a depilating device with a vibrator which exerts forces of varying intensity on the skin while plucking hairs by pinching them between a pair of rotating rollers. The rollers are held at a fixed position to rotate continuously to be always ready for introducing, pinching, plucking and releasing the hairs. In other words, the rollers or plucking members do not move as a whole relative the skin and therefore do not give a definite depilating cycle consisting of a hair introducing step, a hair pinching step, a hair plucking step, and a hair releasing step. Due to the lack of the depilating cycle, the stimuli cannot be synchronized with the above steps in an attempt to effectively and consistently mask the pain of plucking the hair.